Drawer suspension with auxiliary rollers



2 Sheets-Sheet 2 D. A. GUNN FI'AL DRAWER SUSPENSION WITH AUXILIARYROLLERS wmw |||||||i ll l l DONAEX maN R 0 AN vM IZKEE E. SENECHAL BYAHQRNEY Jan. 13, 1959 Filed Feb. 13, 1957 WIIIIII IIIIIIII III I JUnited States Patent DRAWER SUSPENSION WITH AUXILIARY ROLLERS Donald A.Gunn, Kenmore, N. Y., Lawrence R. Dean,

Marietta, Ohio, and Wallace R. Senechal, North Tonawanda, N. Y.,assignors to Sperry Rand Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation ofDelaware Application February 13, 1957, Serial No. 639,931

2 Claims. (Cl. 312-637) This invention relates to improvements in drawersuspensions, and has particular reference to improvements in drawersuspensions of the general type shown in U. S. Patent No. 2,331,529,issued October 12, 1943, to Carl F. Wolters et al.

The object of .the invention is to provide a construction wherein, asthe drawer is moved back and forth in its compartment, there will besubstantially no side sway or lateral displacement of the parts hithertoencountered which has caused friction and binding of the parts duringthese movements.

In drawer suspensions of the above type there are provided a fixedcasing track member, a movable intermediate track member, and a drawertrack member. The drawer is suspended from the intermediate track memberand when filled, due to the weight of the drawer, there has been atendency of the intermediate track member to move or sway laterally inits forward and backward movements. This generally caused a frictionalrubbing between adjacent walls of the fixed track member and theintermediate track member which increased the resistance to movement andalso increased the wear and tear on the parts thus engaged.

The invention briefly includes the provision of means on the twomentioned track members which will engage the adjacent wall of the othertrack member with a I minimum of friction to hold these track members indefinite spaced relation during these backward and forward movements.Preferably these means take the form of horizontal rollers disposed oneach of said track members and extending into contact with the adjacentwall of the other track members .to produce contact and rolling frictiontherebetween and at the same time to keep the track members in properspaced relation as the drawer is moved inwardly and outwardly of thedrawer compartment.

The present preferred form of the invention is illustrated in thedrawings, of which:

Fig. 1 is a horizontal section of the left side of the construction,taken on the line 11 of Fig. 3, showing the intermediate track memberfully housed within the casing;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the right side of the construction,taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 4, showing the intermediate track memberpulled forward in the casing;

Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical section .taken on the line 44 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the track members, with the casingremoved, showing the drawer disposed in its inmost position within thecasing; and

Fig. 6 shows the relation of the parts when the drawer is movedforwardly to extend outwardly of the casing.

In order to illustrate the improvements constituting this invention ithas been necessary to show sufficient of the main construction which isknown in the art and is the roller 20 as shown in Fig. 3.

"ice

of the type clearly shown and described in U. S. Patent No. 2,331,529,issued October 12, 1943, to C. F. Wolters et al. and entitled DrawerSuspension. The known construction in brief and general terms comprisesa drawer casing having side walls 10 and 11 and a rear wall 12 of adepth to afford space for one or more drawers although only one drawerand its cooperative parts is shown herein. For each drawer unit there isprovided a pair of casing track members 14 and 15 disposed re spectivelyon opposite sides of the casing against the walls 10 and 11 andextending longitudinally from the rear to the front of each drawercompartment along the lower portion of the compartment. These casingtrack members 14 and 15 have longitudinally extending vertical walls 16and 17 respectively. These track members are fixed to the walls 10 and11 of the casing in any suitable manner.

At the front of each casing track member, as particularly shown in Fig.3, it is bent along the upper portion to provide a recess to support afixed U-shaped bearing member 18 along the upper edges of which the axle19 of a bearing roller 20 has a limited forward and rearward movement.These same bent portions of the casing track members toward the rearthereof receive a roller 21 mounted on the lower wall portion 22 of anintermediate track member. These walls 22 at their bottoms are bentinwardly as at 23 to support cross bars 24 and 25 to hold the said wallsin proper spaced relation. These intermediate track members extend fromthe front to the rear in each drawer compartment and at their upperportions are bent in a U shape similar to the manner in which the upperportions of the casing track members 16 and 17 are bent. At the front ofthese intermediate track members, as shown in Fig. 3, these bentportions support a fixed U-shaped bearing member 26 along the upperedges of which the axle 27 of a bearing roller 28 has a certain limitedforward and backward movement, similar to the movement of the bearingroller 20 above described. The lower leg 29 of the U-shaped bent upperportion of the intermediate track member rests upon This U-shape bentupper portion of the intermediate track member at the rear thereofreceives a roller 30 rotatably mounted on a drawer track member 31 whichis welded to the side of the drawer (Fig. 4) and has an upper outwardlyextending flange 32. The roller 30 rides upon the leg 29. At the frontof the device the track flange 32 rests upon the top of the roller 28 asshown in Fig. 3. .As the drawer 13 is pulled out and moved in, therelation and operation of the above mentioned rollers and the trackmembers are well known and as described in the above mentioned U. S.patent.

Improved construction With the above described construction it will beperceived that the intermediate track members which support the weightof a heavily loaded drawer, as it is pulled in and out of the drawercompartment, tend to be deflected laterally and cause friction andbinding between the lower portions of the walls 22 and the adjacentwalls 16 and 17 of the casing track member. This will hinder the smoothand even and easy movement of the drawer into and out of the casing. Toeliminate this objectionable action, the herein invention concerns theprovision of a plurality of rollers disposed for rotation in ahorizontal plane and mounted on the intermediate and casing trackmembers so as to keep these walls apart which, as above stated, have atendency to rub against each other with the specified objectionableactions.

As shown in the drawings, there are two rollers 33 and 34 mounted on theflanges 23 of the intermediate track membernear the rear thereofandadapted to rotate in a horizontal'plane. These rollers extend partiallythrough openings 35 in the adjacent walls 22 of the intermediate trackmember to ride along the adjacent walls 16 and 17 of the casing trackmembers 14' and'15; Likewise, there are two rollers 36 and 37 suitablydisposed for rotation in a horizontal plane and mounted on the casingtrack member with these rollers extending partially through openings 38and 39 of the casing track member walls 16 and 17 to have rollingengagement with the lower portions of the walls 22 of the intermediatetrack members.

Thus it will be seen that asthe drawer 13 is pulled out of or moved intothe drawer compartment the lateral relation between thecasing trackmembers and the intermediate track members will remain constant andtherefore avoid the lateral deflectionv above mentioned which has beenobjectionable for the reasons stated.

It will thus be seen that by the provision of pluralities of simplespacing and friction-reducing means between the respective track membersthe ease of insertion and withdrawal of the drawer is greatlyfacilitated, the friction and binding of the parts is eliminated andthis by means of very simple and economical additions to the presentstructure.

While we have described what we consider to be a highly desirableembodiment of our invention,'it is obvious that many changes in formcould be made without departing from the invention and we, therefore, donot limit ourselves to the exact form herein shown and described, nor toanything less than the whole of our invention as hereinbefore set forth,and as hereinafter claimed.

We claim: 1. A drawer suspension construction having 21 cars ing with adrawer compartment, fixed track members disposed along and on oppositesides of said compartment, intermediate track members, and drawer trackmembers, said track members interrelated for relative movement by meansof rollers, the fixed Casing track member and the intermediate trackmember having adjacent spaced vertical walls, the invention whichcomprises horizontally disposed rollers on each of said fixed andintermediate track members disposed along their length to contact theadjacent wall of the other track member to maintain the said members intheir longitudinal spaced relation as the intermediate track member ismoved inwardly and outwardly of the compartment.

2. Theinvention of claim 1 in which there is a horizontally disposedroller at the front of each fixed track member to engage the adjacentwall of the intermediate track member and a horizontally disposed rollerto the rear of each intermediate track member to engage the adjacentwall of the fixed track member whereby the intermediate track membersmay be moved smoothly and in constant spaced relation to the fixed trackmembers.

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS383,689 Barns May 29, 1888 867,101 Blomberg Sept. 24, 1907 867,102Blomberg Sept. 24, 1907 1,545,016 Sessions July 7, 1925 1,547,627 ThomasJuly 28, 1925 1,920,855 Gloekler Aug. 1, 1933" 2,174,181 Rand Sept. 26,1939," 2,331,529 Wolters et al Oct. 12, 1943 2,587,691 Brewer Mar. 4,1952 2,646,333 Abrahamson et al. July 21, 1953

